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Friday is a special day for the furries, there’s a tradition of posting photographs on social media under the hashtag fursuitfriday, (#fursuitfriday) Have a look and see what my fellow fuzzies are up to!

A classic #fursuitfriday image of Marshall

In campaign news, the At Home With The Furries Kickstarter is now up to 44% backed with 85 supporters, there are 19 days left so worth getting pledges in sooner rather than later. One thing that’s worth mentioning is that the funds are only taken from backers at the end of the campaign, April 5th. And that’s assuming the target is met, no target, no money and that’s the end of the story. But we don’t want to do that, oh no! Fingers and paws crossed. Click here

The furries are hugging to get this project over the line

In publicity news, Cosmopolitan interviewed me for their website (the US version) and did a really nice job with the feature. The conversation took place over the phone and I’m pleased that the journalist Kaitlin Menza included my anecodotes about furries, scalies and featheries. Thanks to the photo editor, Kathleen Kamphausen for organising that. See here

Lupus Londonwolf and Alfa Fox

Finally, I was pleased to hear from an old friend, Wolfy who I got to know at one of my very first furmeets in London. It was one of those classic situations where I was with some friends and I noticed he was on his own, we got chatting and it turned out he knew me through the magazine, Bizarre ( I used to be the photo editor there) he was a keen reader and we have kept in touch since through social media and the odd furmeet and convention. He backed the book this week and tweeted the following.

“Before (the furries) I had no social life. Struggled like hell with people and often had panic attacks. It wasn’t until I started to go to furry meets that I actually felt connected with people. For the most part the people were friendly and welcoming and very understanding. I still struggle at times in crowds but I have been to conventions, done furry camping. Things that would have scared the hell out of me 10 years ago”

There are plenty of fantastic rewards available, postcards, limited edition prints, the book and lots of actual fur, including slipcases and tote bags. You can pledge any amount to back the campaign. Click here and let Pazuzu tell you more

Straight off the bat, I am so grateful to each and every one of you who have backed, shared and mentioned the At Home With The Furries book Kickstarter campaign so far. This book is about communicating a thought I had nearly ten years ago, I had no idea then that I would be now sitting here writing a blog post about how privileged I am to have this level of support for the project.

To break it down into numbers, we launched on Tuesday at 8am and since then 67 amazing people have pledged just over £3000, putting us just shy of 33% of the total required to publish the book. The campaign closes on April 5th.

A sample of the fur being used by Curious Creatures to make the furry slipcases. One of the campaign rewards

It was always my intention to publish a book of the work, and every magazine feature, exhibition, website and press article that has been published in the subsequent years since I started the project helped me along towards that goal.

From the Absolut Manifesto Festival, Madrid, January 2018

I should add at this point that this project has been and is only possible because I have the support of the furries themselves. Those who have featured in the book of course, but also those who I’ve met more widely, through for example social media, sometimes following that up in person at furry meets and conventions. Perhaps furries who have visited from abroad and we’ve met for a coffee, a tea or a pint.

Shooting the film for the Kickstarter campaign with Syrrus Fox and Lupestripe

The project has grown organically, through being given the nod by furries I had photographed, and other furs I met at meets and on walks. In 2013 when The Sunday Times Magazine featured the project, I had no idea that I was only halfway through at that point. Since then, Saethwr, Fangorn, Rebel, Pazuzu, Bucky, Zepp, Blacksnip, Edward Fuzzypaws and many more furs have allowed me to go to their homes and make portraits of them.

Edward Fuzzypaws, a poodle and Teddy, a labradoodle in their drawing room

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Today I launch a Kickstarter to self-publish At Home With The Furries as my first book.

The intention with At Home With The Furries has always been to publish a book of the work. I felt back in 2008 when I initially started working with Smirnoff, Lupus, Alfa, Lupestripe, Broccoli, Chill and Zuki that there weren’t really any portrayals of the furries in the media that were balanced or fair and so my approach was to address that with my photography. My plan was to do something that although quirky, the idea of placing a furry in a domestic setting, the overarching feeling was to laugh with them, not at them. I was more interested in building a relationship with the furries I photographed, and indeed that happened quite naturally. I was a stranger, an outsider to this world and yet I could not have been welcomed more warmly into people’s houses.

The project over the years has received some wonderful feedback, not least from furries themselves. One confided to me that having seen the feature in The Sunday Times Magazine (March 2013), it gave him the confidence to go to his first furry meet and make friends. For me personally a watershed moment was seeing Smirnoff, the husky wolf, the first picture I took for the project, feature in the book by Paul Lowe, 1001 Photographs You Must See Before You Die. Mainly to see my work alongside work by photographers such as Leonard Freed, Eve Arnold, Susan Meisalas, Simon Norfolk and Sandy Skoglund (photographers I studied at college and university) spurred me on to move ahead with the Kickstarter to self-publish the book.

The key to any successful Kickstarter is to put together a great video and its thanks mostly to two furries who have become close friends and supporters of the project over the years. Pazuzu and Lupestripe. The idea of shooting a short film about the furries had been on my mind for a while and so the thought of bringing the furry project to life on film seemed like a logical next step. You can see the campaign video here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/466109304/at-home-with-the-furries

In 2016 I attended a book making workshop with Aron Morel at Photofusion, it was there that I was challenged to decide what my vision for a photobook would be of the project. Since then, the concept has become more fleshed out and everything about the book reflects the nature of the project. The cover, the paper stock, the materials, the design, the writing, the photography and the rewards for the crowdfunder.

Alexandra Tomlin, a professional animator and illustrator, designed the cover.

The cover will be a flock (felt) material and the plan is for the design to be foil blocked onto the surface.

The designer is Roger Fawcett-Tang of Struktur Design, I’ve worked with Roger for many years on book projects.

The book will also contain an essay by Laura Noble, she has written a wonderful piece about the project.

It will also have a text by Uncle Kage, the chairman of Anthrocon, a Pittsburgh based furry convention. It’s also one of the biggest furry conventions in the world with attendees numbering some 5000 every year.

There will also be additional illustrations inside the book alongside thoughts, words and quotes from the furries themselves.

It is being printed in Turkey by Ufuk Sahin, a leading photobook printer.

The rewards for pledging include postcards, limited edition prints, furry tote bags, furry slipcases and of course the book itself. All book pledgers get their name/chosen name in the back of the book as a supporter.

I will be posting many more updates over the next 30 days as the campaign goes on.

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Last month I received a lovely email asking me if I would like to be a collaborator to a new music and art festival in Madrid end of January sponsored by Absolut.

They were interested in the furry project and since it hasn’t been shown in a physical space outside of the U.K, I thought why not!

The themes of the festival; equality, love and responsibility to the future resonate with the reasoning and ethics behind At Home With The Furries. Plus they revealed their intention to print eight images absolutely huge. Each one six feet tall, from a scaffold.

There’s also the added excitement of the fact that local furries from Madrid will be in attendance, which is always helpful in bringing the work to life. We did this with Fix Photo where some of the actual furries in the project suited up for the launch party of the exhibition. The word I received back from attendees was that my work was the best part of the exhibition, I’m not biased honest.

But what are the #furries you ask, what is your project, what the fur is going on?

Jester, a sergal and Red, a lion play a game of tabletop roleplay in Sheffield

I’m headlining mum

Zuki, the gargoyle, Milton Keynes

I’ll be heading out there to see the work in the flesh or the fur, so to speak. Plus I’m also planning to meet with a few local furries to work on some new shoots. Because when in Rome…or Madrid you have to go the whole hog!

My photograph ‘Smirnoff, a husky wolf hybrid’, from the series ‘At Home With The Furries’, will be featured in the new photography publication;

1001 Photographs You Must See Before You Die.

Fittingly for the project, At Home With The Furries, this photograph is the very first picture I took for it. I remember arriving at Smirnoff’s house and after we had a cup of tea, I asked him to (fur) suit up. At that point I was astonished by the costume, the scenario of him being at home and I felt we needed something to ground his character into his surroundings. I also recall my nervousness, mostly from thinking I hadn’t thought this idea through. Afterwards I kept coming back to this image and it became the template for the rest of the project. The thought that, you could have walked into someone’s living room, discovered someone in a wolf suit playing a piano and the response from the wolf to be, “and what are you looking at?”

At Home With The Furries has become so much more than a photographic project, it has been exhibited in London with the furries themselves making an appearance. The furries have become my friends as I traversed the UK meeting them in their homes. I’m pleased that the photographs have appealed to people on so many different levels and perhaps best of all, it has encouraged people to get involved and come to their very first furmeet.

Is photography art, documentary, or both? Should images simply reveal the world we live in, or provoke us to think, act, and react?
A visually arresting reference, 1001 Photographs You Must See Before You Die is an invaluable guide to the history and practice of photography. Sweeping through the arts, fashion, society, war, peace, science, and nature, the images in this enticing book are as eye-catching as the commentary is engaging. Some you have seen, others will be unfamiliar, but what all the photographs have in common is their ability to move you, shock you, and open up the notion of what it is to be human.
Organised chronologically by the date that each image was made, and featuring a reproduction of each photograph, the selection provides some fascinating and unexpected juxtapositions. Insightful text uncovers the creative process behind each image, revealing its visual, aesthetic, and historic significance, Why was the photograph taken? Was it set up? What was the intention? How did the world react?
From Fox Talbot to Nick Knight, from Roger Fenton to William Eggleston, and from Cartier Bresson to Diane Arbus, all the photographers featured in this book transgressed the boundaries of the camera with a skill and spirit that helped to develop their field into a highly evocative art form.
In a world where millions of snapshots are taken every day, these exquisite images stand out for their eye-catching content and technical prowess, provoking reactions that range from joy, exasperation, and horror to fascination, repulsion and ecstasy. Uncovering the compelling tales behind the lens, this comprehensive global encyclopaedia reveals how this powerful art form has shaped the modern world.

Last Thursday saw the grand opening of FIXPhoto at the Bargehouse on the Southbank , a huge exhibition of cutting edge photography organised by L A Noble gallery with 22 artists showcasing their work including Emily Allchurch, Lisa Creagh, Einar Sira, Robert Clayton and yours truly.

Picture: Neil Massey

The turnout was spectacular and one or two furries made an appearance which went down well. Zuki the gargoyle, Sticks the Fox, Edward Fuzzypaws, Bhavvels Bunny, Quartermane and Kreek put on a performance which people are still talking about. Yes I might have said, ‘explore the four floors of art and photography and have some fun’

The writer David Secombe wrote about the exhibition on the London Column here. Here’s an excerpt: “A nod to Lewis Carroll isn’t inappropriate, given that the furry domain shares some of the dreamy charm, transformative power and moral complexity that he represents. That seems obvious enough. But the image of the stag invokes the iconography of the pre-civilized mind and a time when woods were feared and venerated. This stag is a forest god; one that might be worshipped as part of the sacred, time-honoured rituals of Summerisle”

The exhibition closes on Sunday, the 22nd at 8.30pm.

The work is on sale as editioned signed prints, framed and unframed.

Thanks to Zuki, Bhavvels, Albrecht, Pickle, Edward and Sticks for the wonderful support.

Firstly Laura Noble, the photography gallery owner and curator has taken me on as one of her represented photographers, have a look at L A Noble Gallery. This is wonderful news for the furry project. As readers of this blog may have picked up on, it’s very important to me that the work is used and appropriated on the best and most suitable platforms whether that is print, online and now within the context of a gallery; essentially to reciprocate the trust the furries have given me over the years. Laura Noble has been following the project, since I started it and this gallery representation is a boost to the work and also the overall plan of making a book of At Home With The Furries.

Secondly the project will be exhibited in central London from May 13th to the 22nd at the Oxo Bargehouse, part of the Oxo Tower on the Southbank. It’s being showcased alongside 17 other collections of work by some very talented photographers as part of a new photo festival called FIXphoto. It’s an honour to be showcasing At Home With The Furries alongside work by photographers such as Emily Allchurch, Lottie Davies, Marta Kochanek, Robert Clayton, Einar Sina and Chris Steele-Perkins to name a few.

I’m very pleased to be working with Richard Wills at Photofusion who will be making all the prints for the exhibition. I started working with Photofusion about two years ago and their professionalism is second to none.